UK-based Evero Energy, which specialises in waste-wood-to-energy and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), has hailed its “strongest quarter to date” for energy production as it targets involvement in the HyNet decarbonisation cluster in the North West of England.
In total, the company said it had provided 113,000 MWh of energy to the national grid and local industrial partners during the fourth quarter, with its Ince, Mersey and Lisahally waste wood biomass plants achieving “consistently” high availability and generation hours.
In particular, Evero reported performance improvements at its waste wood burning Ince plant, which saw a 13% increase in availability during the quarter and set a new utilisation record, generating 36,403 MWh. The firm attributed this to operational enhancements and efficiency gains.
“By optimising efficiency and reliability across our portfolio, we’ve increased energy output and unlocked greater value from our plants,” stated Evero’s head of engineering, Mark Roberts.
Owned by Infracapital, the infrastructure-led arm of asset management giant M&G, Evero is looking to develop BECCS technology at two sites, at its Mersey Bioenergy plant near Widnes and its Ince Biopower plant near Ellesmere Port.
In August 2023, the firm raised a £215 million senior debt facility from investors led by Hamburg Commercial Bank, backing the 65.4 MW portfolio of the three biomass plants.
Initial deployment of the fundraising was used to buy out the interests of co-shareholders in Lisahally and Mersey Bioenergy. An Evero spokesperson told Energy Voice that the company had originally bought its equity share in these assets from the Green Investment Bank, the plants’ developer, in 2015 alongside the existing equity of the fuel provider and the operations and maintenance (O&M) provider.
Evero, previously known as Bioenergy Infrastructure Group, also revealed in 2023 a partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to use the Japanese firm’s carbon capture technology for the Ince BECCS project.
Evero’s BECCS plans entail retrofitting the Ince and Mersey plants with CCS capacity under sister projects known as InBECCS and MBECCS respectively. In October 2024, the company confirmed that these two BECCS projects had passed the “deliverability assessment” in the UK government’s HyNet track 1 expansion process. This came within days of news that the government had agreed to provide £21.7 billion of funding for the development of two CCUS clusters, of which HyNet is one.
Key step
“Passing the UK government’s track 1 deliverability assessment means Evero’s BECCS projects have been deemed technically and commercially viable to be operational in the Hynet cluster by 2030,” the Evero spokesperson said. “This is a key step, confirming that Evero’s projects have the potential to deliver large-scale greenhouse gas removals (GGRs) and contribute to the UK’s net zero goals.”
The addition of the CCS infrastructure to the Ince and Mersey plants is expected to generate up to 400,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide removals (CDRs). Evero is aiming to bring the CCS capacity at both sites online by 2030.
While Evero pushes ahead with its BECCS projects, however, Drax Group, the operator of the largest biomass power plant in the UK, has yet to receive government support for its BECCS scheme.
On top of this, the subsidy Drax receives stands to be effectively halved from 2027, after the government on February 10 announced a new support mechanism for sustainable biomass generation beyond that year.
The new mechanism will enable Drax and other eligible large-scale biomass generators to be supported via a low-carbon dispatchable contract for difference (CfD) after current support for such generation ends in 2027.
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